An Internet Story
by HistoryLights
Summary: You never know what you'll find on the internet
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one:

A/N: This story is based on the YouTube video: An Internet Story. Thus I own neither the video nor Sherlock Holmes.

It was a quiet evening in 221B. Outside, the hear of a summer's day was just beginning to cool, and all around, the sounds of the London nightlife permeated the air.

Sherlock Holmes listened to all of this with acute annoyance as he lay sprawled out on his favorite couch.

John sat across from him in his armchair, typing on his laptop and trying to ignore his flatmate's grumbles.

It had been a slow week for the two of them. Crime, it seemed was taking a summer holiday with the rest of the city. There had of course been cases as it was still London no matter what the season was. But the occasional break in or vandalism could do nothing to stimulate the great detective's ever going mind.

"Bored." Sherlock groaned after about an hour of silence. John ignored him.

Sherlock pursed his lips and glared at his flatmate.

"BOOOOORRRREEEDD!" he enunciated. Again, John said nothing and continued to type as if Sherlock wasn't even in the room.

Another minute or so passed in silence, the only sound was John's fingers tapping away at the keyboard.

Finally, Sherlock sat up angrily and glared at John. "John." he said.

The ex army doctor looked up at him innocently. "Hm? Yes Sherlock?" he tried to stop his mouth twitching into a smile at the pout in Sherlock's eyes

"I said, I'm bored." Sherlock repeated for the third time. John nodded with a stoic expression.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time." he replied. Sherlock gave him an incredulous look, like he couldn't quite believe that John would dare ignore him.

"Well, what do you propose to do about it?" he demanded, crossing his arms across his chest and pouting fully.

John rolled his eyes at him. "_I _am going to finish typing these replies and _you_ are going to find something to entertain yourself with." Sherlock gave him a hard stare. John stared back, completely unperturbed.

After attempting (and ultimately failing) to stare down his friend, Sherlock huffed angrily and flung himself prostate across the couch once more, his back facing away from John. "What is _wrong_ with the Criminal World John?" he moaned pitifully into the leather. John rolled his eyes fondly and stared at Sherlock a moment longer before turning back to his computer.

"I'm sure something will turn up, Sherlock," he said knowledgeably. "Something always does." The detective sniffed a reply and John laughed quietly.

A few moments of silence passed between them before Sherlock twisted around to face him again.

"What could you possibly be writing about that's more important than entertaining me?" he asked in frustration.

Without looking away from his computer screen, John said, "My sole purpose in life is not to amuse you, Sherlock."

Sherlock scoffed as if he'd just said the most ridiculous thing in the world.

And for your information, I'm writing up The Case of Identity from last week." Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"Ugh! Dull John!" he groaned. "Utterly dull!"

Once more John rolled his eyes. "Don't you have some experiment you could be doing?" he asked absently, thinking on how to word his next sentence.

Sherlock frowned, thinking. "Well, I suppose I could measure the precise distance it takes for a little finger to-"

John cut him off before he could go into anymore detail. He shut the laptop with a snap.

"Why don't I give Lestrade a ring? See if he's got anything for you?"

The grin on Sherlock's face was blinding as he beamed at John. He instantly sat up and John thought he could see him literally shivering in anticipation. John hoped he wouldn't be disappointed.

'Just like a child,' he thought fondly. He sat his computer aside carefully and took his phone the table beside him. He flipped through his contacts list until he came to Detective Inspector Lestrade's name. He hit 'Send' and waited, refusing to to look at Sherlock as it rang. He nearly sighed in relief when the Inspector picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hello John," he greeted. "Bored is he?" John sighed into the phone. 

"You have no idea. Please tell me you've got something." he asked. On the other line, Lestrade laughed.

"As a matter of fact, I do." he said brightly. "I was just about to give you a ring. How soon can you come?"

John smiled and sent a nod toward Sherlock. The detective was already stripping off his light blue dressing gown and racing off to his room.

"Give us half an hour Inspector?" he said. "He's just gone to put on pants I think...well I hope."

Lestrade gave another laugh. "Thank god for small miracles." he said. "Right, then, I'll see you John. Try not to let him hurt anyone on the way over will you?"

"Easier said than done, I'm afraid." John said sardonically, hanging up just as his flatmate came out of his room dressed in a dark gray suit and one of his impossibly tight silk shirts.

John raised an eyebrow. "Why not wear the purple one? All the fans love that one."

Sherlock gave him a withering glare as he grabbed is coat and scarf. "My fans," he snipped. "Or_ you _John?"

John opened his mouth to reply irritably but wasn't given the chance as Sherlock was already racing out the door.

"Come on John!" he called. "We can't keep Lestrade waiting! The case might be affected buy all of the stupid in the building!"

John rolled his eyes yet again and dragged himself out of his chair. He would let the shirt comment slide for now. Sherlock was finally getting a much needed case; he was happy.

So what if the purple one _was his favorite? _It didn't mean anything.

~SH~

The ride to Scotland Yard was quiet, with each man thinking his own thoughts.

Sherlock had a thousand and one different scenarios for the case running through his head, each more fantastic than the last. John was just hoping they wouldn't get shot at...again.

Traffic was heavier than normal. It being summer, no one wanted to venture out during the day preferring the cool of the night.

Sherlock started fidgeting half way there, drumming his fingers along his knees.

After about a minute of this, John finally looked away from the window where he'd been watching the cars as they passe by.

"Can you not sit still for five bloody minutes?" he snapped.

Sherlock sent him a small pout but stopped his drumming. Soon enough, the cab they were in pulled up in front of the New Scotland Yard.

"Finally!" Sherlock groaned, barreling out of he cab and racing into the building.

John rolled his eyes as once again he was left to pay the tab. He got out slowly and handed the cabbie his dues before following behind Sherlock.

The yard itself was a bustle of activity with officers running all around; chasing after a lead here or filing a report there.

John spied Sherlock already arguing with Anderson in the cornor.

"Probably over something completely ridiculous." John muttered to himself. He decided that it mightn be a good idea to intervene before Anderson did something stupid...like punch Sherlock. Which would be bad for a number of reason...but mainly because John would then have to murder him- and he wanted to keep his record clean...ish.

Before he could take two steps toward them however, Lestrade came stalking out of his office glaring daggers at the two of them.

"Anderson, I thought I assigned you to the Maxwell case?" he snapped.

Anderson pursed his lips at he reprimand and replied, "Yeah so?"

Lestrade gave him a pointed stare. "Yeah, so you're not working on it!" He pointed a finger to a door that led to another part of the Yard. "Go. I want to know what started that fire by the time you leave tonight."

Anderson gave a frustrated growl and started off, but not before sending Sherlock a murderous glare- not unlike a school child who'd just gotten in trouble with his teacher and sentenced to a week of writing lines, whilst the true offender waltz away to a snack of delicious milk and cookies.

John rolled his eyes at Sherlock's smirk. Lestrade turned on him with a raised eyebrow. "And you; in my office now!" Having said this, the DI turned and walked back the way he'd come.

John caught up to Sherlock as he made to follow Lestrade. He grabbed his sleeve to slow him down a bit. When the detective gave him his attention, John gave him a look that clearly said, "Behave...or else."

Sherlock scoffed. "Please. He was the one who started it."

"Right. And I'm sure that you are completely blameless Sherlock. The very picture of perfect innocence."

Sherlock grinned fully as he replied, "Obviously, John. Try to keep up."

John laughed aloud and gave his friend a gentle shove toward the Inspector's office. The evening was certainly shaping up to be an interesting one. He only hoped that the case proved to be the same.

Chapter one/end.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This chapter and perhaps the following one would be better understood by googling the site mentioned in the chapter :) if it gets too confusing then I'll post the link. R/R please! Chapters will come faster the more reviews I get!

Chapter Two

The inside of Lestrade's office was neat but messy. Organized chaos, he called it fondly.

There were stacks of papers and manila folders lying on just about ever available flat surface there was.

John raised an eyebrow at it all. He was positive that the office hadn't looked this way the last time they'd been here, and that had only been a week ago!

Lestrade noticed John's loo and shrugged. "Busy week." was all he said. John nodded. Sherlock scoffed. Lestrade scowled at him. "Just because none of our cases "tickle your fancy", Sherlock, doesn't mean they go unsolved." he scolded. Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"As fascinating as of these pleasantries are, I believe we're here about about a case?" Sherlock huffed.

Both men rolled their eyes at the detective. Lestrade rifted through the papers on his desk and pulled out one with the title: Al1. It wasn't hugely thick like some of the other ones. In fact, it looked as if the file was brand new.

"Before you start on," Lestrade said as Sherlock opened his mouth; probably to say some scathing remark about the capabilities of the yard. "We got the case earlier this evening."

He opened the folder to reveal a single piece of paper- hand written. There was no date and no signature. He handed the paper over to the detective.

"This was all we got, and quite frankly, we don't know what to do with it." Lestrade explained. "We've got way too many other cases right now to spare anyone so I thought we'd send it your way."

Sherlock was barely listening as he examine the paper. "The writer was male." he started. John immediately focused on his friend. He'd never say it out loud (not that he really even HAD to) but he loved watching Sherlock work. There was something truly enchanting about it. Even Lestrade stood transfixed on him.

"He was left handed, obvious from the slant of the writing. He appears to be intelligent or at least he believes that he is." John raised an eyebrow at this.

"How can you tell that?" he asked. Sherlock growled in mild annoyance but answered anyway.

"See the messiness of the writing? No female writes like that. His brain is moving faster than his hand. The letter itself is well thought out. He took his time- wasn't in a hurry to get his message across."

"He works with or around computer quite often; you can tell by the smudge in the left corner of the paper- likely from a printer, the paper is xerox or something very close to it. I'm guessing a young man in his early 20's with little to no social life other than what he gets from 'twitter' or 'facebook'."

He finished his examination of the paper and was met with silence from the other men. Sherlock looked at John expectantly.

John just stood there, nearly gaping at him, a look of pure awe written on his face.

"You got all of that from a letter?" he asked. Sherlock shrugged.

"Well I haven't read it yet obviously..." he said, trying and failing to sound modest. John shook his head fondly.

"Brilliant!" he praised. Sherlock barely contained the pleased smile that wanted to spread across his face. It didn't matter how often he did it; he really loved to impress John.

They stood smiling at one another for a moment longer before Lestrade piped up.

"Would two like me to order you a room? Or are we going to work?"

Immediately John looked away, his cheeks tinged pink, and muttered a quick "Sorry." Sherlock raised an eyebrow and grinned mischievously.

"Why not do both?" he snarked. The color in John's face darkened but it was unclear whether or not it was from embarrassment or annoyance.

"Not helping Sherlock!" he hissed. Annoyance then Sherlock shrugged indifferently, and turned back to the letter.

There was a few moments silence while the detective read it. When he was done, he handed it over to John. Confused the doctor took it and scanned it... he glanced at Sherlock to find him already on his phone searching something or other and turned his his attention back to the letter. It read, in barely legible cursive:

To whom it may concern,

If you are reading this note, something has gone wrong. Horribly wrong and I have failed the test.

The puzzle itself was easy... almost TOO easy really. But I never thought it would come to this. Al1 is clever that's for sure. And his site is worthy a look from the famous Sherlock Holmes.

I suggest then, that you start there. Find what I missed...find the answer.

John looked up with an even more confused look on his face. Sherlock looked positively furious with his phone.

"Doesn't really give us much to go on does it?" he said.

Sherlock looked up briefly to give him a 'Really?' look, then turned back to his phone. He looked at it a moment longer before growling in frustration and shoving it back into his coat pocket.

"It tells us enough John." he snapped. He pushed passed Lestrade and moved to the computer humming softly on the desk.

"What are you doing?" asked Lestrade irritably.

"Our writer said 'site' as in website. That's obviously where this puzzle is." Sherlock said matter-of-factly, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world and the other two were complete idiots for not seeing it.

"John looked at him in annoyance. "But he didn't mention an actual site." he said. "He just said that there was one." Again Sherlock sent him the "Please tell me that you are actually this stupid." look.

"He also mention the name Al1 as the owner of this site John. It's a simple matter going to Google and-Ah!" Sherlock grinned at the computer screen. John and Lestrade moved to see what he was staring at.

On the screen in bold yellow letters were the words: AL1'S GRAND QUEST!" The page claimed that the owner, Al1 had hidden £9000 in an undisclosed location somewhere in the UK. The money was free for anyone to claim as long as they solved a series of clues provide by Al1.

"Ugh dull." Sherlock sighed, instantly deflated. The site itself was rather plain with yellow text and a black background. There were a few pictures either showing the money or showing the money in a hole in some kind of field.

He scrolled down the page until he got to a link that contained the the first clue. Sherlock lazily clicked on the link and waited for the page to load.

When it did, he sat up straight and focused on the image that appeared. A short comic with no words arranged almost like a sentence. 37 pictures in total, some repeating, most not.

"So he leads us to a plain website with a link to a crudely drawn comic..." Lestrade said, sounding even more confused than John was- which was pretty fucking confused. "What the hell's he getting at then?"

Sherlock looked at him and smirked. The familiar spark began to smolder in the depths of his gray-green eyes, making him seem for all the world like a maniacal genius- oh wait...

"Oh," he said. "It's much more than a comic, Inspector... it's the first clue..." Sherlock turned to John and full out grinned. John felt his breath catch at the sight. Sherlock Holmes in his element, his zone or stage or whatever you wanted to call it; was the most breath taking sight in the world...

"The game John," Sherlock said excitedly. "is on again."

Chapter two/ end.


End file.
